Was reading through some of my old threads I started and came across this suggestion I made 5 years ago about having a site called “FreelanceDen” integrated with the marketplace.. and now we have MicroLancer

You know I make a lot of suggestions, and every time I always get minimal feedback or generally most people don’t agree… but years later these things get added and everyone thinks it’s wonderful. Even reading this old thread the reception of “FreelanceDen” was luke warm to even slightly condescending #justsaying

I hope we’ll get those much needed home page changes I’ve been rambling about the last few years.

Here was the suggestion for “FreelanceDen”, sound familiar?

A client wants to do a custom project… he signs up to the freelance section and submits a request. Each request must have an explanation of what needs to be done, time frame and payment amount for the project etc. Authors who are interested can submit requests to do the work and the client can choose which author is suited for the job. Before commencing work the client must pay the full amount which is held by FlashDen and is released to the author on project completion. When the author shows work to the client it is all done within a preview environment. Once the client is happy with the final preview, payment goes through to the author and client is released the working files all done through the FlashDen site. FlashDen could even make commission on each freelance job to make this profitable to implement. There could be moderators who could keep an eye on each project and address any issues that my happen. Anyone breaking the rules could be blocked from the freelance section.

However personally I believe ideas are easy to make but grasping the possibilities and executing on right time without risk is the key. They managed to complete things in safe order.

Lets look the logic. In those times, Flashden was the primary marketplace and ThemeForest VH, CC, GR were not yet proven the full potential (and there was no PhotoDune). So they probably focused on expanding marketplace system, Tuts websites and other few sites.

But after coming across solid success of TF and completion of PhotoDune now the only missing part is service based market. They did the obvious. (still ML is not exactly a job posting site – and it resembles a product marketplace rather than being a job posting format)

Ahem.. coming to the marketplace home page / exposure improvements etc that’s entirely different. It actually requires a shaking changes in industry – so that they will make improvements just for survival.

VF said
But after coming across solid success of TF and completion of PhotoDune now the only missing part is service based market.

ActiveDen was a solid success before TF, and there was a booming market for something like MicroLancer with all the buyers back then wanting custom work done, Envato lost out on a lot of potential commission. MicroLancer + ActiveDen would have complimented each other well, and prevented a lot of file theft we experienced back then with people dumping our files on forums all over the web asking for help. AudioJungle could have waited, which in my opinion isn’t as good as some of the other online places to buy sound FX / music, so in my opinion was kinda rushed and just a clone of ActiveDen – hoping to achieve the same success.

VF said
But after coming across solid success of TF and completion of PhotoDune now the only missing part is service based market.

ActiveDen was a solid success before TF, and there was a booming market for something like MicroLancer with all the buyers back then wanting custom work done, Envato lost out on a lot of potential commission. ...

Of cource there was some hope. But if you look closely, it requires a separate payment system, a moderation team, a search system etc. All those demanding huge resources and execution time than just adding a new marketplace from existing framework. That’s why it was risky in the past I believe.